Home Guards’ training centre comes up in D’gere

Davanagere: Karnataka State Home Guards and Civil Defence Regional Training Centre has come up at Devarabelakere village in Harihar taluk of Davanagere district.
It is aimed at providing basic training for the newly joined Home Guards, and also advance training in disaster management to them later. This is the third training centre for Home Guards in India, the other two being in Bengaluru and Nagpur.
Home Guards from north Karnataka are trained the the Davanagere centre while their southern counterparts get trained at the Bengaluru centre.
The centre has hostel blocks for men and women, seminar halls, administrative office, and dining hall with kitchen. Modern devices to tackle disasters like floods, fire, road accidents (part of disaster management) have been added to the centre at a cost of Rs 84 lakh.
Facility lacks amenities
Though the government recently sanctioned a rescue tower, it has not been constructed due to the pandemic, said Dr B H Veeerappa, district Home Guards commandant (retired). The centre is being managed by only five staff members though 21 posts are sanctioned for the facility, he added.
The centre lacks telephone connection as Devarabelakere village does not a land line network. Because of this, the staff members are facing problem in accessing the internet.
Besides training Home Guards, the centre also trains police and fire personnel and lends its infrastructure for training teachers and Scouts and Guides.